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Slackware 13.0 Released
willy everlearn and several other readers let us know that Slackware 13.0 is out. "Wed Aug 26 10:00:38 CDT 2009: Slackware 13.0 x86_64 is released as stable! Thanks to everyone who helped make this release possible — see the RELEASE_NOTES for the credits. The ISOs are off to the replicator. This time it will be a 6 CD-ROM 32-bit set and a dual-sided 32-bit/64-bit x86/x86_64 DVD. We're taking pre-orders now at store.slackware.com. Please consider picking up a copy to help support the project. Once again, thanks to the entire Slackware community for all the help testing and fixing things and offering suggestions during this development cycle. As always, have fun and enjoy!"
It seems that deb/rpm people don't like/understand Slackware.
No hour on a horse is ever wasted. Winston Churchill
Or you could just use the torrent page.
But, if you want to download your operating system from a completely unknown and untrusted source, go right ahead.
Granted, TPB would probably link you to the same torrent, but why would you take the risk? Because you find searching, poring over a search list, and deciding on one that looks safe is a more efficient use of your time than just going to the source's torrents?
I would argue that Slackware is for people who have a better understanding of how the system fits together than many (but certainly not all!) of the rpm/deb package users. I use Slackware in an Enterprise setting on 70+ servers that cover everything from email to web-hosting to firewalls to custom built "sales presentation" devices. For us, slackware gives us complete control over the systems, without having to guess at what other services or programs may muddle with different parts of the configuration. It's easy for us to disable and remove any services that are not necessary on a particular computer, and we have our own custom installation, testing, and deployment scripts that allow us to keep machines with similar purposes up to date and in sync. While we could accomplish the same things with virtually any distro, Slackware is (for us) the easiest to do these things with, and "Just Works".
The main purpose of Slackware is to provide a Linux distribution that is very BSD-like. People familiar with FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD that need to use Linux will find Slackware very pleasant to work with.
Linux users that have no experience with UNIX and the CLI will find themselves stumbling around and complaining and asking stupid questions like: "Does Slackware have a real purpose?"
I look forward to upgrading.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
Slack is great but overweight.
Slackware, overweight? You obviously don't know what you are talking about.
Usually, you only need the 1st CD to install a minimal Slackware system, including fluxbox if memory serves well. CD2 is usually KDE and XFCE. CD3 are optional packages. CD4 through CD6 is source code.
Since I have installed Slackware on countless servers, I hope Slackware 13.0 still follows this simple rule.
And "Everything plus the kitchen sink" is precisely the opposite of the Slackware philosophy (= KISS).
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
TPB really helps me find my torrents. This kind of file sharing is exactly what BT is great for.
I've used DistroWatch since the first time someone told me to try out Debian in college and it turned out I needed a different distribution because Debian was for me to start out on. Very memorable learning experience.
Even today, the site does a really good job of keeping up to date. An example is Slackware 13.0 that was released today and there in one paragraph with all the links you could want and direct links to mirrors for torrents and the MD5s.
A lot of times when I want to know what a distro is up to, I click that pull down bar -- like say Fedora -- and get a convenient history of recent releases with a paragraph about the release. Hats off to the people who maintain that site.
My work here is dung.